Sharks and Minnows
by FoxTrustsNo1
Summary: Follow Sakura and Kakashi through their turbulent journey as they painfully wear down each other's rough edges and learn how to love people for who they are while still wanting better for them. Wherein Sakura is more than just a prop for cheap drama. M for adult language & themes. TEMPORARY BUT INDEFINITE HIATUS
1. 1: School's Out

CHAPTER I: SCHOOL'S OUT

Sakura fiddled with the shark tooth on her necklace and bit her lip, anxiously awaiting her new sensei. All of her friends' sensei had come and gone, leaving Sakura with the loud-mouthed knucklehead and the fratricidal mute. Though she was glad to be on a team with Sasuke, she would have loved to have been paired with Hinata and Kurenai-sensei, even if it would have meant working with Kiba or Shino. Shino wasn't nearly as annoying as Kiba but Sakura could not get passed the fact that his skin was literally crawling with bugs.

When Sakura was a child, Inoichi-san had trapped her in a mostly-benign genjutsu for lying to him and then immediately taught her how to break it. She had been intrigued ever since, but as neither of her parents were genjutsu-types, and the Academy barely taught anything concerning chakra control, she hadn't progressed at all since then. She had considered asking Inoichi-san to continue teaching her, but he had gotten busier and busier over the years and barely had time to train Ino, let alone Sakura. Kurenai-sensei would have been ideal to continue Sakura's training, not to mention that she was the most fabulous kunoichi Sakura had ever laid eyes on.

And it was unfortunate that Ino-Shika-Cho was never going to split up because she and Ino worked well together, and their friendly rivalry only spurred them to new and higher levels of expertise. And Choji was so nice and respectful and Shikamaru had an analytical mind that made Sakura green with jealousy. Speaking of which, Sakura had turned even greener when she saw how handsome Asuma-sensei was. Even Ino had blushed, and the girl had been shamelessly flirting with every man she met since she learned to bat her eyelashes when she was two years old.

"Our sensei is an elite ninja. You think he'd fall for that?" Sasuke derided, wondering how the hell he had ended up with these two...nobodies as his teammates. Yeah, Sakura had the best grades in the classroom, but her grades in field work were worse than Naruto's. Would his sensei be just as incompetent? He could barely afford to have a couple of deadweights as teammates, he couldn't afford to have one for a sensei, too. And if his sensei wasn't a deadweight, Sasuke couldn't afford to piss him off in their first meeting.

"It's what he gets for showing up late!" Naruto said as he finished placing the eraser between the door and the frame. "Everyone else has already met their sensei and is on a cool adventure!"

Sakura thought that was fair, but still gave a half-hearted warning. "You're asking for trouble, you know."

"It's worth a try, believe it! Surprise~!"

"Not if he makes us run laps around the village as punishment." Sakura pointed out, going cross-eyed as she tried to inspect the small notch she could feel in the tooth without removing her necklace.

The rope holding the shark's tooth was gray and slightly frayed, having replaced the original black one two years ago. Sakura had considered repairing the black one–it was a gift, after all–but, at Ino's behest, chose something that wasn't so stark against her pale skin.

"If he does, you can ride on my back." Naruto grinned wide at her, his blue eyes dancing with mirth and his hands clasped behind his blond head. He loved getting a rise out of Sakura, partly because he liked seeing her worked up–she was just so pretty!–but mostly because it guaranteed that her attention would be on him. Sure, her fists hurt, but not as much as being ignored.

"Pervert!" She smacked his chest hard.

Couldn't he just keep his damn mouth shut? He never ceased to say or do something to make her hit him: jumping out from behind things to scare her, making crude comments, pulling her hair. She hated it, and she hated him and his stupid blue eyes and blond hair and creepy smile. Honestly, just his existence set her edge.

"Take it down, loser."

Three full sentences in less than thirty-seconds? That was the most Sakura had heard Sasuke say all week. He seemed to reserve his words for demeaning Naruto, and Naruto seemed to reserve his loudest volume for disagreeing with Sasuke.

"Make me, bastard!"

"Don't yell at Sasuke!"

Self-respect, Outter-Me, Inner Sakura whined. Self-respect!

Sakura had an undeniable compulsion to protect Sasuke from anything or anyone unpleasant–which Naruto surely was–and so had been acting as buffer between Sasuke and Naruto since their first day at the Academy. The problem was that Sasuke seriously resented her thinking that he needed protection, so she had quickly adapted to make him, and everyone else, think that it was because she was in love with him, not because she thought he was inept.

In reality, she knew –on a much smaller scale–how death could affect a person. Personality changes, nightmares, anxiety. She had no proof that he was experiencing these things but she didn't care–she was going to take care of him as if he were and whether or not he liked it.

Of course, there was another reason, but she couldn't let it be discovered. Ever.

Inner loathed this adaptation, arguing that there were plenty of more respectable ways of throwing suspicion off of her motives than pretending to be a lovesick fool, and it wasn't too late to start employing them. What really made Inner mad was that Sakura had fallen for her own ruse and had actually become lovesick for real, and it made Inner want to puke.

Sakura would argue that it was impossible not to love someone you were taking care of.

"Let him fight his own battles!" Naruto growled at Sakura, not for the first time. He hated that she always took Sasuke's side, even when the jerk was being a jerk! Naruto was determined to break her down. One of these days, she was going to acknowledge him and ignore Sasuke. It was second-in-importance only to his mission to become Hokage.

"Battle?" Sasuke scoffed. "You couldn't lay a hand on me."

Naruto was half a second away from launching himself at Sasuke when their sensei walked into the classroom.

Two hours late.

Naruto guffawed and clutched his stomach as the eraser fell atop the man's wild, silver hair, dust becoming a cloud around his head.

Sakura cringed at the nails-on-chalkboard sound that was Naruto's laugh but Inner thrust her fist into the air and yelled, Bulls-eye!

Sasuke didn't bother to hide his disgust, one of the few emotions he ever displayed, and the only one he displayed freely.

It took Sakura less than a second after she finished cringing to realize that she knew this man who was to be her sensei–sort of. And he didn't particularly like her. And, well...she didn't particularly like him, either.

They had crossed paths at the Memorial Stone several times over the years, including this morning. He never stuck around when she showed up, and the few times that he had been the one to interrupt her, Sakura had forgone her own ritual in order to allow him his. This morning had been one of those times and while she had resented his inability to share the space, she was now glad that she hadn't abandoned the rules of conduct and decorum she had been taught in regards to her elders and to her superiors. Had she dug her heels in like she'd wanted to this morning, this meeting would probably go a lot worse than it was already on track to go.

Their sensei glared at each of them in turn with his one uncovered eye, then flatly asked, "And whose idea was this?"

Naruto stopped laughing and sheepishly raised his hand.

Sakura blushed and looked at her feet; she hated being on a sensei's bad-side.

Sasuke looked out the window with a, "Hn."

"I see. My first impression of this group is that I hate you."

Sakura thought that was a bit extreme for this small interaction; surely he would need a few more minutes before he truly hated them.

Up on the roof, Kakashi listened to Naruto rant about becoming Hokage, thinking that the kid had grown up in an…interesting way–as loud and as obnoxious as his stupid track suit. Orange? Seriously–what the fuck?

Kakashi thought–briefly–that if he didn't like the way the kid had grown up, he should have taken part in raising him, but that thought didn't even consciously register before it was sucked behind the walls that Kakashi had built to house his demons, and there it would remain.

If he had known when he woke up this morning that his sensei's son would be his student, Kakashi wouldn't have gotten out of bed. As it was, he had barely gotten out of bed anyway. It was getting more and more difficult by the day and Gai and Genma had started showing up more often in the past few weeks under the guise of having breakfast with him and getting in a morning spar.

Kakashi was sure that Gai had something to do with the Hokage forcing him to be a sensei. Gai was constantly going on about his team and probably thought that Kakashi could get the same kind of energizing jump from a team of his own. Fortunately, Kakashi had yet to meet a team that could pass the bell test, which meant that he would remain active-duty ANBU. He knew the black ops unit was taking its toll on him, that he needed to get out soon, but he was sure that it was still better than babysitting genin.

He tuned Naruto out and looked at his other two students: Uchiha Sasuke and…that pink-haired girl who sometimes intruded on his time at the  
Memorial Stone. What was her name?

"Your turn, Sakura!"

Kakashi barely stifled his snort–could her parents have been any more obvious? There clearly wasn't a lot of creativity flowing in those genes. And again, with the damn colors! Red? Red? It was worse than orange! Tied, maybe. No, combined with her ridiculous hair, red was definitely worse.

"Oh, uh, I'm Haruno Sakura. I like..." She trailed off thoughtfully then she blushed and her eyes darted to Sasuke. "Eek! Uh, I mean who I like–no, uh, I like mani-pedis!" She said in a panic, then turned to her blond teammate with hard eyes. "I hate Naruto!"

"EH?!"

"My dream is to...uh..."

"Thank you, Sakura." Kakashi nodded once, cutting her off.

Kakashi clenched his jaw; girls her age were always more interested in boys than being ninja, and Kakashi didn't think he could keep up his pretense of mysterious and all-knowing sensei if she said her dream was to have the perfect husband. Sometimes he wondered why girls were allowed to become kunoichi so young. In Kakashi's experience, they had difficulty focusing; didn't know how to control their emotions; and had no idea that silence was golden. Hell, even many adult kunoichi had those problems. Some of the shinobi, too.

When Kakashi finished his thoughts, Sakura and Naruto were staring nervously at Sasuke as he radiated killing-intent while he spoke of killing a "certain someone;" like it wasn't obvious who. Kakashi, though, remembered Uchiha Itachi well, and in comparison, his kid-brother was as intimidating as a fruit fly. Kakashi repressed a shiver at the thought of Itachi: the kid had always given Kakashi the creeps, and the fact that he'd been able to slaughter every member of his clan by himself meant he'd been even more powerful than anyone knew. Not to mention stone-cold.

Not that any of this mattered, anyway: of all the teams Kakashi had failed, Team 7 was the most likely to fail spectacularly, and then he could go back to ANBU or take solo missions until the next round of sub-par graduates were assigned. It was so easy to fail teams based on thinking and acting like a team when the Academy did nothing but pit them against one another.

"Now that all that's out of the way, let's talk about tomorrow," Kakashi said forebodingly, hamming it up in order to resist the urge to end his misery with a kunai to the brain.

As Sakura laid on her green bedspread, watching her red curtains with golden swirls swish in the breeze from her window, she couldn't help but contemplate her karma.

On the one hand, she had been placed on a team with Sasuke, ensuring that she could continue to watch over him. On the other hand, she had been placed on a team with Naruto, ensuring that her every nerve would be frayed by the end of every day. On the other, other hand, her sensei was the Copy-Ninja, and on the other, other, other hand, the Copy-Ninja didn't like her.

While that had been fine with her when she only saw him on occasion and didn't actually know who he was, he was her sensei now, and she would have to find a way into his good graces. She had noticed some dog hair on his uniform, so maybe she could get something for the animal?  
Or, like, offer to groom it or something? Everything she knew about dogs she learned from Kiba and his family's dogs were as weird as he was.  
But...maybe that was normal for dogs? Maybe–

"Sakura~!"

Sakura shot up from her bed and ran to the top of the stairs, stopping for only a moment of surprise before grinning ear to ear and bounding down the steps into her father's arms. "Dad! You're home early!"

Haruno Kizashi wasn't a big man but he had always seemed so to Sakura. This was partially because his dark pink hair was styled in a star around his head that added several inches to his height. But it was also because of his jovial personality and round-ish belly.

"Your mother lost rock, paper, scissors." Kizashi smiled brightly, the lines across his face growing deeper. "We couldn't both miss your first day as a genin. Tell me about your team!"

Sakura's gut lurched a little and she wondered how he would react. Her mom certainly wasn't going to be happy when she got home tomorrow.

"It wasn't that big a deal." Sakura shrugged as she pulled away from him. "I was assigned a team, we met with our sensei, and we're meeting up for training in the morning."

"Come on!" Kizashi tickled her sides as they walked into the kitchen just down the hallway on the left. "Stop stalling!"

Sakura swatted at his hands and flicked his arm in retaliation before nervously chirping, "Well, we're Team Seven, which is a lucky number in some places." Like that was going to help soften the blow. Sakura shook her head at herself and reached into the refrigerator for some lemonade, rubbing the back of her neck. "And, uh...my teammates are UchihaSasukeandUzumakiNaruto," she rushed. "Well, I'm gonna shower and–"

"The Uzumaki and the Uchiha?" Kizashi looked as dazed as if he'd been hit with a bat. "That's...that's...whoa. What were they thinking?" He mumbled as he sank into a kitchen chair. His eyes shot up to Sakura's with a look she had seen from her parents multiple times in her twelve years of life but still had only been able to decipher bits and pieces of it. He was afraid and Sakura could count on one hand how many times she had seen her dad wear that emotion. "And who's you're jōnin sensei?"

Sakura had to clear her throat a couple of times before she could answer and when she did, Kizashi's eyes went wide as saucers.

"Holy Hashirama!" The star points of his head shook violently. "That's...I mean...wow." He ran his hand over the bottom of his face. "He's...There's no better ninja in the village, you know–except the Hokage. You're lucky to get to learn from him."

Kizashi hoped he was telling the truth. He knew, of course, who the Uzumaki was to Hatake and that their paths had never crossed until now. If Hatake could extricate himself so thoroughly from the life of his dead sensei's son, would he even think twice about Sakura? Hatake Kakashi was not known for his friendly nature and Sakura was a social creature and eager to please; that wasn't known for being a healthy combination.

Kizashi had no recourse for getting Sakura moved to a different team, however. The laws of the Village made Academy graduates–even the early-achievers–completely autonomous from their parents. The only things they weren't legally allowed to do yet were get married and get drunk, though both happened frequently before the legal age of eighteen.

The only thing that somewhat assuaged Kizashi's fear was that Maito Gai respected Hatake. Maito-san was once assigned as a bodyguard on a particularly dangerous mission that Kizashi and his wife, Mebuki, had been assigned in a nearly-lawless part of Fire. Ever since then, Kizashi had had nothing but admiration and respect for him. If a man like Maito Gai considered Hatake his best friend, then Kizashi would at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

"The best?" Sakura asked. "In the whole village?"

"Absolutely."

"Then...why is he teaching? Don't they need him doing missions?"

"If you think about it," Kizashi said slowly, his enthusiasm on the rise, "wouldn't you want your best ninja training future ninja? Passing on his knowledge?"

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"So," Kizashi's eyes glittered. "What's he like?"

"Kakashi-sensei? He's...theatrical," she said, thinking of his maniacal laughter as he told them about tomorrow's survival exercise and that failure meant another year in the Academy.

"Theatrical?" Kizashi's brow furrowed. "That doesn't sound right. Theatrical how?"

"I dunno, just...theatrical." What did she mean by 'theatrical?' It was an odd word-choice and she wasn't sure where it had come from; why not 'weird' or 'eccentric?' She shrugged it off and said, "I'm gonna go shower and stuff, then I'll make dinner. What do you want to eat?"

"Fish, of course."

Sakura grinned. "Really?"

"Didn't think we'd break tradition just 'cause you're a ninja now, did you?" He grinned back.

"Cha! I'll shower later!"

Kizashi grimaced as he watched his daughter casually snap the neck of a fish against the flat edge of a rock. It shouldn't bother him like it did, how unconflicted she was; it didn't bother him with anyone else. But, he hated to see Sakura do it because he'd never been able to get the first time out of his head.

Kizashi wondered what would happen when it came time to kill her first human. The first time she would have to choose between her own life and someone else's. She had been in a life-or-death situation before and had used her teeth to nearly tear a chunk out of her attacker's arm, but she had only been four-years-old. She hadn't had a prayer of killing the teen to save herself, so Kizashi didn't count it.

He wondered if she'd even thought about the consequences of being the one to kill another human, justified or not. That attack when she was four-years-old had ended with Sakura witnessing three brutal deaths and she had never been the same.

Where she had been sweet and a bit shy, she began to have random eruptions of anger and crying and violence. She had been scared of her own shadow whereas before, nothing scared her–for crying out loud, she had thought sharks were cute! And, unsurprisingly, she had developed a morbid fascination with death.

The nightmares were the worst, though. During that first year, she ended up in his and Mebuki's bed nearly every night. At first, her screaming and crying would wake them and they would rush to get her. Then she began coming to them on her own, crying but not hysterical. And then she stopped coming to them at all, stopped crying and screaming in the middle of the night.

They had thought, at first, that she was getting better, but they had been horribly wrong. The nightmares had become so intolerable that she had just stopped sleeping. She could be found in her room with all the lights on, drawing pictures that became progressively dark over time. And she had stopped looking at kids picture books and started looking at pictures of animal predations in nature magazines.

It had been difficult to arrange their missions so that only one of them was gone at a time, but Kizashi and Mebuki had both decided that making sure Sakura knew they were always there for her was the most important thing, especially as she withdrew further and further into a reclusive, explosive shell of her former self. The medics hadn't been able to explain her drastic personality changes to them, other than to say that it was common for kids and even adults to respond that way after such an assault and that she'd probably grow out of it. That had seem like a lot of bullshit to him and Mebuki but Konoha Hospital wasn't exactly known for its competence. In fact, there wasn't a single hospital in the five nations known for its competence.

The Haruno had had to tighten their budget a bit in order for one of them to always remain with Sakura, but it had been worth it. As much as he hated to admit it, Kizashi wasn't sure if he would have made spending time with Sakura as much of a priority if she hadn't struggled like she had. And though he hated that she had to suffer, he was grateful for the opportunities it had given him with his daughter.

"Ready, Pops?" Sakura asked with a grin as she rinsed her hands off in the lake.

"Ready, Sakura." Kizashi smiled at her, then turned his back on the lake and laced his hands together in front of his knees.

Sakura charged him from several feet away. Just as her right foot landed in his hands, he swung them over his head, and Sakura shot a blast of chakra to her foot. She soared over the lake for nearly thirty meters before landing with a huge splash. When the water settled, she was soaking wet, but still on the surface of the lake.

Kizashi's jaw dropped. When the hell did she learn that?!

Sakura giggled gleefully as she ran across the water toward him, leaving Kizashi even more dumbfounded. Kizashi couldn't do more than stand–shakily–on the water's surface, and he was a Water-Type! Sakura was running across the water nearly as well as she could run across land. He knew that Sakura spent most of her free-time learning chakra control but he'd had no idea she had progressed so far.

For the second time today, Kizashi was truly afraid for his daughter.

He'd always been worried about her, of course–she was a ninja, after all. But a genīn who could control her chakra better than many chūnin, and even better than some jōnin, was an allure that no authority in the Village could resist. Chakra control at her level did not come easily and was, in many cases, a more valuable skill than any of the typical skills taught to ninja.

Sakura reached the shore and threw her arms around Kizashi's neck, just as she had since she was a child. Kizashi was still tempted to think of her as one, but in the Five Nations–and the shinobi villages in particular–twelve was practically an adult. Fair or not, childhood was short because life was short. It didn't matter that governments were using children to take part in war and espionage because there weren't enough adults left to meet the Nations' needs. Hell, there were barely enough adults left to maintain population growth, and the day the governments tried to start breeding twelve-year-old's was the day Kizashi took up his weapons again.

Kizashi wished he could give Sakura even just one more year of carefree irresponsibility, but he knew she had never been irresponsible and she hadn't been carefree since she was four-years-old. It was so easy to forget that, though, when she looked at him like he was still the coolest man in the world.

He didn't expect that to last much longer now that her sensei was Hatake Kakashi.

"I think that's a new record!" Sakura beamed.

"You think?" Kizashi laughed. "You can run on water! Even I can't do more than stand."

"Really?" Sakura sounded both elated and concerned.

"Really. Did you learn that in the Academy?"

"Pssh, no." She rolled her eyes dramatically. "They don't even teach chakra control in the Academy! They just make you guess until you have a passable jutsu. So stupid."

Despite his fear, Kizashi's chest swelled up with pride; not only was Sakura able to walk on water, but she had taught herself how to do it.

"Sakura-chan." Kizashi put his hands on his daughter's face, an earnest look in his eye. "Do me a favor?"

"Sure, Dad."

"Don't show off how much control you have of your chakra. Please."

"You want me to hide my strongest talent?" Her voice cracked.

"No," he lied. "I just...want you to be careful about who knows how talented you are." He gave her a long hug, then pulled away and said, "Let's eat."

As Sakura seasoned the fish that her dad had gutted and cleaned, she continually side-eyed him as he chopped the vegetables.

Was walking on water really such a rare skill? Sure, Sakura had been working toward it for five years, but she'd always thought that it had taken her so long because of her young age. Were there other ninja like her father who couldn't walk on water? Was that why he never became a jōnin? How was it possible for a water-type not to be able to walk on water?

And why the hell had he asked her not to display her chakra control? Why did she have to be careful about who knew how good she was?

Well, she knew why she'd been careful over the last five years but she doubted that her dad had the same reasoning. And she hadn't thought she'd need to keep up the ruse now that she had graduated to a Team.

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"Is it bad that I have so much control of my chakra? I thought–I mean, isn't that the goal?"

Kizashi stopped cutting carrots and turned to face his daughter with a pained, but loving, look. "It isn't bad, Sakura. I'm sorry I made you think that. It is...dangerous, though."

"How come?"

"There are some people in the Village who would take advantage of your skills."

Sakura pursed her lips in confusion. "Isn't that the goal of being a ninja? For the Village to take advantage of your skills?"

"Yes," he said very slowly, trying to tread carefully though he knew Sakura would never rat him out–not on purpose. "When appropriate. There are some people who use a ninja's skills inappropriately, though, and skills like yours most of all."

"Oh."

Kizashi's chest ached at the sound of that word–like her entire world had tilted.

"How do I know who I can trust?"

That was the million-yen question, wasn't it? "I don't know, kiddo. But, you will. When the time comes. You'll know who you can trust."

Sakura nodded, unconvinced, and turned back to the fish. The idea that she couldn't trust everyone was new to her, although, the more she thought of it, of course that was the case. Anyone could be the next Uchiha Itachi, right?

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

"How come you and Mom moved to Utilities? Why didn't you stay in the general ranks?"

Kizashi was quiet for a moment, taking a deep breath before saying, "We weren't well-suited for the general ranks. We are much more useful to Konoha and Fire as irrigation and agriculture specialists. We had to know our strengths–and personal desires–and have the humility to request reassignment. Why, Sakura? Are you having second-thoughts about being a ninja?"

"No," she said adamantly, truthfully. "I just never asked you before. I've always wondered."

"Ninja skills are needed everywhere, just not always in the ways that people think. Your Mom and I have done a lot of good for people–helping them get running water, improving their soil, getting–."

"Dad, I know you and Mom help lots of people. I wasn't asking...I wasn't asking because I'm...ashamed or something. I'm way proud of you!"

"You...are?"

"Cha! You guys are awesome! Even most of my friends like you better than their own parents, even when their parents are s'posed to be to super-cool jōnin."

"Oh." He blinked, nonplussed.

"Shnikies! I forgot to start the rice!"

It was during a lull in the conversation over the dinner table, when father and daughter had full bellies and no intention of starting the dishes any time soon, that Kizashi asked,

"Hey, Sakura? I, uh, didn't get the chance to ask you before Mom and I left on this mission, but...did I hear you having a nightmare the other night?"

Sakura didn't hesitate as she continued reaching for her lemonade, and her shoulders barely tensed before she laughed easily and said, "How should I know what you heard, Dad?"

"Ha, ha, very funny." He reached across the table and flicked her forehead, which made her giggle.

"It wasn't too bad. Ninja's honor." She lied.

Sakura loved her parents more than she loved anyone. Her nightmares of eyeless ninja and cascades of blood were anything but random and infrequent, but they were the price she had to pay, and she was willing to pay it. Her parents, though, were not; they hadn't even been willing to pay it for themselves, which was why her mom was a geologist and her dad was a hydrologist, using their chakra natures to help villages across Fire to begin, maintain, and/or improve their soil, as well as their water quality and conservation.

Sakura knew that neither of them had wanted to be ninja, but in their time, that hadn't really been a choice. Not that Sakura had much of a choice, either, although there wasn't a draft in place like there had been for her parents. But Sakura wanted to be a ninja, she wanted to be strong and dependable and fearless. And so, Sakura had spent over half of her short life convincing them that she wasn't fragile or broken.

Her parents had had more than one verbal brawl over Sakura, her health, and whether or not she would be allowed to join the Academy. They would flip-flop over the benefits of her learning to protect herself versus the reality that she would have to face even more death and destruction. The contention had been so bad that, several times, Sakura had almost told them that she didn't want to be a ninja anymore and that they didn't have to worry or fight about it ever again.

Sakura understood her parents' desire to protect her, but they didn't seem realize that she had to be able to protect herself. That way, no one else would die because of her and, just as importantly, she would be able to save others the same way that she had been saved by the ANBU agent in the leopard mask. If the choice had been left up to her parents, she would never have been enrolled in the Academy.

Luckily for her, Konoha gave seven-year-olds limited autonomy, which included the ability to enroll in the ninja academy without a parent's permission. By the time she got hurt bad enough for her parents to be notified, she had already proven that she could hold her own. At least, well enough that Iruka-sensei didn't want to kick her out.

And she was going to keep holding her own, no matter what.

That's what Inner was for: a chakra-manifestation of Sakura's unconscious, tasked with protecting Sakura when she wasn't awake, though she began chiming in during Sakura's waking moments more and more frequently as Sakura got older. Inner was Sakura's secret weapon against her nightmares, and while the conversation with her dad indicated that Inner didn't always prevent Sakura from waking up screaming, she certainly succeeded most of the time. Plus, she was really good at organizing and integrating everything Sakura learned nearly immediately, making it almost laughably easy to maintain her spot at the top of the class.

"Do you, uh..." Kizashi stammered, "well, I mean, I can...we can talk about it?"

"Thanks, Dad." Sakura smiled. "But, I don't even remember it. That's how I know it wasn't bad."

"Oh." Kizashi sighed with relief and smiled. Still, he asked, "How often do they happen?"

"Not often. That's normal, though, right? Most people have nightmares sometimes?"

"Well, yes." Kizashi nodded. "But ninja...for ninja, it's usually the good dreams that only happen sometimes."

The silence fell heavy between them. He hadn't told her anything she hadn't figured out for herself, but the sadness in his eyes as he looked at her had her taking stock of her choices again. If the nightmares from watching three people die were bad, how bad would they be when Sakura witnessed more? What about when she was the killer? Would she tough it out, or would she end up in utilities like her parents? Or maybe even as a civilian? What happened if she broke? Would she hurt herself? Others? Both? Would she confide in her parents or would she continue keeping everything a secret?

"I just...I want you to know that your mom and I are still here for you, Sakura. Even if you think you're too old for us now." Kizashi smiled softly at her.

Sakura jumped from her chair and threw her arms around her father's neck, shutting her eyes. "Thanks, Dad."

"G'night!" Sakura kissed her dad on the cheek before heading for her room.

Neither had wanted to go to sleep, unsure of the next time they would be able to do this but, eventually, Sakura had known she needed to turn in for her early morning.

Sakura walked up the stairs on the right of the entryway, trailing her hand along the worn wooden railing as she had done since she was old enough to reach it. She smiled as the eighth step creaked loudly under her feet as it had for years, and then jumped over the thirteenth step and onto the landing. She turned into the first door on her right and breathed in deeply.

Her room smelled like old books and whichever flowers Ino gave her from the shop each week–this week, it was tulips. Sakura's room had always given her a sense of safety and well-being. It was nothing special to look at for anyone but her, but she loved the shark plushy sitting on her bed that she'd had since she was three; the throwing board for her shuriken that she had helped her mom make; the dozens of bottles of nail polish strewn about.

Her desk was piled high with books on chakra–structure, function, exhaustion, restoration, exercises, and a million other sub-categories. There were also books on her shelves ranging from weapons–selection, care, and cautions–to human anatomy–vulnerabilities, strengths, and limits.

The librarians had known her by name since she was five.

Sakura grabbed a pair of clean underwear and her green-and-white-striped pajamas before heading into the bathroom one door down. She washed her hair with her favorite strawberry shampoo; shaved; then brushed her teeth. By the time she snuggled under her blanket with Mr. Sharkie, her eyes had begun to droop, and she drifted off to visions of Inner prowling around the waters of her unconscious, silently warding off any threats.


	2. 2: Meet Me in the Morning

_Thank you all who have read, followed, favorited, reviewed and...whatever else there is to do :) I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this second chapter out–life gets crazy sometimes. This chapter is going to be a bit shorter than the first one, but it was either make this one shorter, or cut the bell test into two different chapters, and that just felt weird. This chapter, like the first, is a bit heavy on the exposition and trying to set up the world as it makes more sense to me. I debated making Sakura as preocious as she is in this fic but decided that she was precocious in canon, too, it's just that Kishimoto never did more than tell us–as opposed to show us. Also, when I watch my twelve-year-old cousins who play sports, they know EVERYTHING that is available for them to know. Hell, some of them know everything about nearly every sport to the point that I don't even know where they find the time to breathe. So, that's my justification for making her as knowledgeable as she is, but she still has a lot of learning to do, so hopefully, she isn't boring for you guys._

_Edit: Thank you, Suzululu4moe, for pointing out that it doesn't make sense that Sakura wouldn't know her chakra natures. I was going to go one way with that part of her journey, trying to sort of stay with canon in that Kakashi didn't teach Naruto about chakra natures until Shippuden, but as soon as I read your comment, I knew I had chosen wrong. So, I changed it. If you've read this chapter already, there's really no reason to re-read it; it's literally the only thing that changed. If you're new here, well, the change doesn't really matter, huh?_

* * *

**CHAPTER II: MEET ME IN THE MORNING**

The little bell on the back door of Hayashi Meats chimed brightly as Sakura walked into the butcher shop/deli, and Hayashi Yuzuki poked her head out from the freezer with a smile.

"Sakura!"

"Hi, Yuzuki!" Sakura beamed at her friend.

The woman was in her early thirties with dark hair and brown eyes and flawless pores. The two embraced, with Yuzuki accidentally transferring some marinade from her apron onto Sakura's tunic.

"Today's the day!" Yuzuki squealed.

"Yeah." Sakura smiled to hide her nervousness. "I'm on my way to the training grounds right now."

"How exciting!" Yuzuki clapped her hands together then turned to the fridge and pulled out three sealed packages, each with four individually-sealed links of pork sausage. "I made them special for you and your team. You know how important protein is for breakfast."

"Thank you!" Sakura took the sausage from her then kissed her cheek. "You didn't have to do that!"

"Nonsense! We've been waiting for this day for a long time." She smiled softly, putting her arm around Sakura's shoulders and turning her to look at the picture over the prep table of an older woman with the same dark hair and eyes as Yuzuki. "We're so proud of you, Sakura."

Sakura bit the inside of her cheek but it didn't help to stop her tears. She turned her face into Yuzuki's chest and did her best not to sob like a baby.

Hayashi Izumi used to babysit Sakura while her parents were on missions. She had lived a couple houses down from them and had kept Mebuki in good health throughout her somewhat-trying pregnancy, which easily transitioned into keeping Sakura in good health throughout her childhood. It was during one of those long-term situations, when Sakura's parents were on a mission and she had had to accompany Izumi to the deli early one morning, that everything changed.

"Sakura," Yuzuki whispered as she stroked Sakura's hair. "You don't need to cry for her."

"I'mmm nn-not," Sakura said shakily. "I'm crying for yo–for you."

Yuzuki's eyes widened at this and it took her a while before she could compose herself to ask, "Why, Sakura?"

"Be-cause, 'cause, I can't ima–imagine losing my mmmooomm!"

"Oh, Sakura." Yuzuki said softly, her eyes misting a little. "I didn't lose her, sweetie. She's just a little further down the path than I am."

"Don't you miss her?" Sakura sniffed.

"Hmm." Yuzuki smiled and tilted Sakura's head up to look her in the eyes. "She's still here, sweetie. Look around: this store, all her regular customers. Me. We're all her legacy. More importantly, _you_ are her legacy."

"Me?!"

"She died for you, didn't she?" Yuzuki shrugged casually but Sakura winced as if she'd been slapped.

On that morning eight years ago, two teenage boys had broken into the deli and tried to abduct Sakura. Izumi, despite being in her sixties, had interfered faster than the teens could react. She had smacked one of them with a rolling pin and he had kicked her to death for it. Sakura, who had been playing with her rock collection at the time of the break-in, threw one at him and cut him across the face. She had been terrified when he turned on her, yet so relieved that he was finally leaving Izumi alone that she had deemed her terror worth it.

"You honor her sacrifice by doing what you love and doing it well. By living happily. As long as you and I do that, she'll always be here, and we'll never have to miss her."

Sakura sobbed again and collapsed against Yuzuki as she wrapped her arms around her. Yuzuki laughed gently, kissed the top of Sakura's head, then patted her back and pulled away from her.

"I love you, Sakura. Now, get going! You don't want to be late on your first day!"

"I love you, too, Yuzuki!" Sakura hiccupped and wiped her eyes on her shoulders. "See you later!"

[Sharks and Minnows]

It was five o'clock on the dot when Sakura skidded to a halt on the training grounds and realized that she was the only one there. As if the dark, sinking feeling in her chest hadn't been giving her enough problems since last night, she began to panic that everyone had made it here early and decided to start without her. But, after only a minute of looking around and worrying her lip, she saw Sasuke approaching the grounds, and then Naruto, both walking like zombies and not looking much better as they collapsed to the earth against their packs and shut their eyes.

The gross feeling in her chest abated a little, but Sakura knew it would only grow worse if she didn't keep her momentum up, so she spent five minutes doing jumping jacks and running in place to make sure she was warmed up, then began a half-hour stretching routine. That turned into another hour of Tai Chi, though by the end, Sakura was so irritated that Kakashi-sensei was late again that she wasn't really moving her chakra at all, just her body.

Yesterday, she had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe there'd been some extra paperwork he'd had to fill out before he could officially be their sensei. But what the hell was his excuse today?! Didn't he know that 'on time' meant 'ten minutes early,' dammit?

Naruto's stomach growled loudly, setting off a chain reaction in both Sasuke and Sakura.

The boys both groaned and hunched over miserably, and Sakura, in her irritation at their sensei, decided that she was going to dish out Yuzuki's gift now. Besides, at this point, she was just as likely to puke from _not _eating as she was from eating, so Kakashi-sensei could just shut up about it.

The boys both looked at her like she was a sorceress when she tossed them each their breakfast packets, and Naruto even managed to thank her before he started eating.

_He's the _only_ one to thank you,_ Inner pointed out loudly.

Sakura ignored her; Inner had always liked Naruto more than Sakura did.

Sakura finished her food then moved further away from the boys so that she could meditate on not strangling Kakashi-sensei when he showed up.

Sakura's mother had taught her that meditation would help her regulate her breath, which would prevent her from becoming angry, or tense, or panicked. The more control she had, the less likely she was to dissolve into a crying, screaming, violent ball of emotions.

Fortunately, it was usually Naruto who incurred her wrath, and he seemed completely unfazed by anything she could throw at him–literally. Sometimes, it seemed like he intentionally riled her up.

_Because that's the only time I acknowledge him,_ she thought in a moment of clarity.

_And why do you think that is?_ Inner prompted.

_Uh..._

Inner flashed two images in Sakura's mind that nearly knocked her senseless.

(X) (X) (X) (X)

_Eight years ago_

The blind alley was damp and reeked of wet cardboard. It was still too early in the morning for the sanitation workers to be making their rounds, and certainly too early for the china shop to be open. Sakura tried opening the back door to the shop anyway, then dashed for the metal trashcans, hoping she could use them to leverage herself over the wall.

"You're gonna pay for hurting me, you little bitch." A smooth voice sounded behind her.

Sakura turned sharply on the blue-eyed blond with the gash on his forehead, little hands on her little hips as she shouted with righteous indignation. "You hurt Hayashi-san! She's old!"

The gaunt, gangly teen stalked forward, slowly closing in on Sakura. Whether to toy with the four-year-old or to try to keep her from spooking, it didn't matter; it was a mistake.

Sakura's nerves couldn't take the suspense and she lunged at him first, biting down hard on his thin forearm and shaking her head violently just like her favorite animal.

He bellowed furiously and Sakura dangled from his arm for a moment before his fist collided with her ribs. The air rushed from her lungs and her teeth released his arm, but instead of falling, she dug her fingernails into his skin and raked them down his arm as her tiny feet kicked at his legs. He cursed and bellowed again, his blue eyes raging, and slammed her head-first into the alley wall.

(X) (X) (X) (X)

Sakura still had a scar near her hairline from that collision.

"Sakura!" Naruto's booming voice broke through her thoughts as he jumped from his spot next to Sasuke to crouch near Sakura. His look of concern made it hard for Sakura to breathe. "Are you okay? You sounded like you got hurt!"

Sakura hadn't met Naruto until a couple of years after the attack, but it was unmistakable to her now: her loathing of him had very little to do with _him_ and almost everything to do with the blue-eyed blond who had attacked her.

And that wasn't fair at all!

_Praise the gods!_ Inner threw her hands up dramatically. _I've only been trying to get you to realize this for six years!_

Sakura had never really seen _Naruto_ in any of their interactions, only the teen from the alley. Everything Naruto did was painted with the fear that his features triggered, and the fury that the fear triggered. The two were nearly-always a package deal with Sakura–fear and anger, anger and fear; she couldn't remember ever feeling one without the other.

As Sakura took several seconds to stare at Naruto and to think about their interactions over the years, she realized that Naruto had never, ever retaliated against her violence. He never hurt her, was never mean to her. He was annoying, yes, but so was every other person on the planet.

It was as if a filter had been lifted from her eyes and she could see Naruto in a whole new light. The last six-years-worth of memories that had been colored by her experience in that alley were now clear and focused and not at all the threatening displays of machismo that she had always thought they were. They were just Naruto trying to be her friend, trying to impress her, trying to help her.

Trying to be seen.

Sakura reached out for Naruto, making to pull him in for a hug. She was already on the verge of crying but when she saw how Naruto flinched in anticipation of her hurting him, yet didn't make a move to defend himself or run away, she burst into tears.

"Sakura, what's wrong? What'd I do?!" Naruto asked in a panic just before she threw her arms around his neck and held him to her.

It only took him a moment to realize that she wasn't going to hurt him and he didn't hesitate to return her embrace. He couldn't remember ever being hugged before and he wasn't going to waste this chance–not when he had been longing for one since the first time he saw Choji's mom give him one.

"I'm so–hiccup!– sorry, Naruto!" She wept. "I–I–I've been so me-mean to you!"

"It's okay, Sakura." Naruto patted her on the back, still holding her in a hug because hugging was his new favorite thing.

"No, it's not!" Sakura wailed, pulling back to look him in the eyes. "Please, forgive me, Naruto! It isn't–it was-wasn't ever your fau-fault!"

"What wasn't my fault?"

"M-me! How–how I reac-reacted to yo-you." She said then took several breaths to calm herself down. "I thought...I thought you were someone else."

"Someone else? I don't get it, Sakura," he laughed a little nervously. "but of course, I forgive you."

"You do?" She whispered and wiped the tears from her face.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" He asked sincerely. "You're my friend."

Fresh tears poured down her face and she held Naruto even tighter. He was a lot sturdier than she had ever thought he'd be and there was something comforting about that. There was something comforting about Naruto, in general–simple, sweet, and sincere.

"You're my friend, too, Naruto." Sakura promised him, and herself.

"Cool!" He grinned his cheesy grin and put his hands behind his head. "Uh...now what?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. "Do you want to meditate with me?"

"Nah, I'm no good at that." He replied matter-of-factly. "You go ahead; I'm gonna sleep some more."

Once Naruto had returned to his pack to use it as a pillow, Sakura crossed her legs, touched her thumbs and ring-fingers together, pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth, and shut her eyes.

She breathed in slowly, imagining a ball of chakra moving up her spine, and when she exhaled, the ball moved down her front in a circuit that her reference books called the Microcosmic Orbit. Using this technique helped her really get in touch with the chakra moving in her own body, the way it flowed through its seven chakra centers and fourteen designated meridians then branched out; the way it seeped into each of her cells; the way it surrounded each of her organs and muscles.

Her mind began to wander, meandering slowly from naming the fourteen meridians and their major acu-points to a book sitting open on her desk about a technique called Iron Shirt, which gave the internal organs extra protection by packing chakra around them. From there, she thought of all the acupuncture and massage books at the library that had helped her over the years, and finally, of Uchiha Itachi, who was responsible for getting her successfully started down the path toward chakra control when she was only seven years old.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't be able to stand on water today, let alone run.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't have found the texts on chakra control that resonated with her the most.

Without his guidance, she wouldn't feel so sick every time she saw Sasuke.

No one knew of her connection to Itachi, not even her parents. He had never asked her not to tell anyone about their training sessions, but keeping them secret had made them feel extra special, and had made _her _feel special, too.

Sakura shuddered at the thought of anyone finding out. Inner had almost given her away yesterday during team introductions when she had opened her big, fat, traitorous mouth to answer the question, "What are your likes?" with "Uchiha Itachi." Sakura had had a spaz attack that she knew made a terrible first–official–impression on Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura would never be able to forgive Itachi for what he did, and she despised him as much as the rest of the village did. As Sasuke did.

Inner, though, was a different story. She was insistent that Sakura knew him better than to accept the story that he had murdered his family just to prove his strength. It didn't fit at all with the Itachi she knew.

Sakura's argument that she didn't know him that well at all never fazed Inner, and neither did Sakura labeling her as naive and stupid.

_You're wrong about Itachi just like you were wrong about Naruto._

_Give it a rest!_ Sakura snapped at Inner.

_Make me._ Inner blew a raspberry and stuck her thumbs in her ears, wiggling her fingers.

Sakura re-focused on her chakra, which had gotten a bit out of hand during her internal argument. But, before she could start reining it in, she froze.

Somehow, she was 'seeing' something resembling a bonfire–orange and chaotic but warm and inviting, too. As she studied it in her mind's eye, she realized it was Naruto's chakra.

Holy Hashirama! She could see chakra!

Ever since finding out that Ino was a sensor-type last year, Sakura had been diligently working to develop her sensing skills. True, she wasn't a sensor-type and would never be able to track someone over long distances like Ino would, but that didn't mean that she couldn't sense the chakra of those near her.

And over the last year, Sakura had gotten pretty good at distinguishing different chakra signatures by _feel_, but she never expected to be able to see it!

She couldn't wait to compare notes with Ino!

Right, notes.

Sakura's analytical mind jumped to work, looking for the things she had done differently.

_Duh__, blockhead,_ Inner piped up again, waving a notecard with the name of a book she had read last year about clearing mental hang-ups. _ You cleared a major block with Naruto!_

Well, that was definitely part of it. But, it didn't explain why she could also see Sasuke's chakra–deep violet and moving in an unsettled swirl, like a distant, chilling wind. She hadn't cleared any blocks with Sasuke and nor would she any time soon, as the only serious block they could have would be Itachi.

_Why do you question me? You can see Sasuke's because you can see Naruto's. Once you accepted that it was possible, it became_ completely_ possible. And not a moment too soon, either._ Inner rolled her eyes. _I've been seeing chakra for years._

_WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!_

_Are you sure I didn't?_

Sakura didn't have a good answer to that, so she ignored it and did another round of the Microcosmic Orbit, focusing her thoughts on expanding her chakra boundaries. She imagined a bubble surrounding her, growing wider and wider with each round of the Microcosmic Orbit. The closer the bubble got to Naruto and Sasuke, the more clearly she could feel their own chakra boundaries and she wondered if they could feel hers, as well.

It was difficult to see their boundaries, as their chakra was just a couple of amorphous blobs, rather than body-shaped, and she was tempted to complain but figured that would be too much of an insult to the chakra-sensing gods. The fact that she could see their chakra at all was pretty cool, and she was already learning new things–like how it fluctuated, expanded and contracted, and otherwise changed boundary shape and size. She had always assumed that chakra just...was. That it existed within the body, never leaving its confines until a jutsu was employed.

But that wasn't the case at all. Their chakra extended well passed their bodies, and she was pretty sure that it was changing based on their snoring patterns.

Sakura had read in her reference books that emotions could exist within chakra, that they were one of the reasons it was possible to read a person's mood and even personal history through the aura of energy around them. Sakura had never much cared about that aspect of sensing chakra, and hadn't thought she was anywhere near being able to sense such things, anyway. She had always thought, though, that either proximity or touch would be required, but she had neither in this moment and yet could sense the flow of emotions, and things that she couldn't identify, in her teammates' chakra.

Sakura knew that her age, at least in terms of her physical development, was holding her back; her body just wasn't developed enough to fully utilize everything that chakra had to offer, no matter how much she practiced. And–if Inner wasn't trolling her–apparently her mind wasn't developed enough, either. Still, Sakura was determined to perfect her skills and techniques now so that when she did finally develop, her transition would be short and smooth.

She focused in on Naruto's chakra, eager to find out what she could learn from it.

[Sharks and Minnows]

"YOU'RE LATE!"

Sakura sat up with a start.

She wasn't sure when she lost consciousness, only that the sun was nearly directly overhead, meaning she had been asleep for hours. As she stood, Naruto's jacket fell from her. She looked at it, for the life of her not figuring out why he would think she was cold when it was sweltering out here, and then realized that her legs were sunburnt–but her face wasn't. If Naruto hadn't covered her, she'd be deep-fried by now.

She handed him his jacket as she stepped astride him and Sasuke, giving him a grateful smile, then turned to Kakashi-sensei.

"You see, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way here."

"What kind of excuse is that?" Naruto demanded.

"The only one you're gonna get." Kakashi said cheerily. "Sakura, how nice of you to join us."

Sakura cringed. "Sorry, Sensei."

Sakura's gut clenched as Kakashi-sensei explained why there were only two bells and what the consequences were for the one left out. She couldn't allow that; though she detested Itachi, she had promised him she'd watch over Sasuke and she intended to keep that promise. Not to mention the legacies she'd sworn to uphold. Sakura had been working her ass off to be the best kunoichi ever, had even endangered her friendship with Ino for it at times, and she would be damned if she would be the one left out.

And because of her promise to Itachi, she had to make sure that Sasuke got the other bell. She couldn't be separated from him, not when she would be sent out of the village for extended lengths of time, unable to watch out for him. She was a little worried about what was going to happen when he tried to join ANBU–they were the best, after all, and he would need to be the best to kill his brother.

_Over my dead body._ Inner harrumphed.

But, Sakura figured that if he were good enough to join the black ops group, he wouldn't need her to look after him anymore.

The problem was...Naruto was her friend now. She had made promises to him, too. How could she abandon him for Sasuke? For herself? How the hell was she–

"Begin!"

Oh, shit.

* * *

_Might I have been able to create more tension and drama if I hadn't reconciled Sakura and Naruto so early on? Sure. Would it have been worth abusing my poor baby and killing pieces of my soul every time I did it? Nope._


	3. 3: Ring Them Bells

_I keep forgetting to mention that the title of Ch. 1 is taken from the Alice Cooper song of the same title, and Ch. 2's title is taken from the Bob Dylan song of the same title. This chapter's title is also taken from a Bob Dylan song title._

_Also, this chapter follows the Bell Test episodes very closely because I find them very fundamental in the dynamics, characters, and philosophies of Team 7, and to the rest of my story as a whole._

* * *

**CHAPTER III: RING THEM BELLS**

Fuck, Kakashi did not want to be here. His gut was in knots and had kept him up all night with heartburn. He couldn't do this anymore. As soon as this team failed, he was going to tell Sandaime-sama that he was out of the sensei-pool. The thought of being responsible for three lives was too much–had always been too much, but these three lives, in particular.

He'd found out last night that Sandaime-sama assigned these three particularly to Kakashi. Or, at least, had assigned the Uzumaki and the Uchiha. Kakashi didn't know what the Sandaime was playing at, but he wasn't happy about having reminders of two of his greatest failures as a ninja shoved in his face.

As for the ditzy pinkette, Iruka said he chose her on his own to complement not just the two boys, but Kakashi, too. Kakashi had managed to be apathetically polite about it but had nearly throttled Iruka. Haruno Sakura was surely another tragic death waiting to happen. Another death to burden Kakashi's conscience, another death to weigh him down each morning. Outliving his own teammates and others of his generation was bad enough, but what kind of sensei outlived his students?

It happened, yes, but rarely.

Kakashi knew, though, that he was a lightning rod for tragedy, and as he watched the three genin scatter to their hiding places after he told them to begin, he could feel it in the way his gut churned that lightning was going to strike sooner rather than later.

* * *

Sakura's stomach fluttered with anxious butterflies as she settled into her hiding place behind the branches of several bushes. She always got this feeling before training, before a spar, before a written test, even just upon waking up in the morning, and it never went away until she started in on her task in earnest. Even in that alley, her nerves had gotten the best of her and she had attacked the blond teen because he was taking too long to attack her. And despite her aversion as she watched Naruto confront Kakashi-sensei head-on, Sakura knew that given a few more minutes, she would be out there, too.

And she didn't know if he was the one she wanted to help.

_Ugh_, Inner groaned. _You know my vote is for Naruto but why choose? __Help them both._

_That doesn't seem very smart–splitting my attention between them means neither gets my full support._

_Or, they both get your full support when they're the one in range and you double your odds of getting one of those bells._

Sakura was about to reply with something about loyalty when Kakashi called Naruto a class clown and said he wouldn't be worth worrying about.

_Who the hell does he think he is?!_ Sakura raged when she saw the stunned look on her new friend's face. It only lasted a second, quickly replaced by his trademark determination, but it was long enough for Sakura.

She realized that she and Naruto were in the same boat, had pretty much always been in the same boat: constantly underestimated and insulted, shoved to the side as lesser shinobi, especially in relation to Sasuke. Iruka-sensei had even told her that he had suggested her for Team 7 because she needed to learn that some things didn't have a different angle or a clever solution, but just needed to be muscled through, and that Sasuke was the perfect person to learn from.

Right now, she was so affronted on Naruto's behalf that she almost left her hiding spot to join him, but that wouldn't have done anyone any good. Instead, she watched Kakashi attentively, looking for even the smallest of twitches. One of the by-products of studying chakra from books on bodywork was that Sakura had become quite familiar with the human body and how its reflexive movements were connected to the energy meridians, which each governed particular instincts, sensations, and emotions.

Kakashi, however, was infuriatingly calm and still, though his posture was so horrendous that she was actually concerned for his health. Surely, he didn't always stand like that, did he? If he did, it had to have created blocks in his chakra, as well as his physical body. From her studies over the last several years, she would bet money on it. Though, from the stories that abounded about the Copy-Nin, it didn't seem to affect his results at all.

Or he was just so talented that his hindered performance was still that much better than anyone else's unhindered performance.

_Hmph,_ Inner scoffed, _maybe some people would be impressed by that, but it just means he's wasting his potential_.

The Great Hatake Kakashi wouldn't purposefully hinder himself, would he?

Maybe he had an injury.

Sakura snapped back to the present as Naruto charged at Kakashi head-on.

_Oh, Naruto, no!_

Kakashi reached into his hip pouch and...

Pulled out a book.

_Huh?_

Not just any book, either: it was one of the books her parents hid in their closet.

_Eww!_

"What are you waiting for? Make your move." Kakashi goaded.

"Why are you reading that book?" Naruto demanded.

"Why? To find out what happens in the story, of course. Don't let it bother you: with your weak attacks, it doesn't really matter if I'm reading or...whatever."

_What a dick,_ Inner said.

Sakura blushed at thinking something so rude about her sensei, opting to forget it happened rather than wonder if Inner was right.

"I'm going to crush you!" Naruto charged again.

Punch!

Blocked.

Kick!

Blocked.

Another punch!

_Holy smokes, that was fast!_

Sakura's brain took a moment to process what she had just seen, or, more precisely, _hadn't_ seen: somehow, Kakashi had ended up behind Naruto, but he hadn't used a transportation jutsu, which meant that he was just that fast. That kind of speed–the kind that eyes couldn't follow–could only be accomplished through chakra.

Sakura had spent the last five years honing her chakra skills so that she could jump ridiculous lengths, and walk up trees and across water, but had failed miserably at using it for speed. She had ended up with a broken cheek on her first attempt, and a broken arm on her most recent, both from a tree.

She couldn't wait to ask Kakashi-sensei to teach her how to move like that.

"Don't let your enemy get behind you all the time." Kakashi admonished Naruto.

_Sign of the Tiger! He's going to destroy Naruto!_

Sakura's hand moved before her brain even finished making a choice about what to do, flinging two shuriken at Kakashi.

He caught them, of course, letting them spin around his fingers like they were no more dangerous than a couple of pinwheels, but it gave Naruto enough time to go on the defensive.

Sakura rolled out from under her hiding place before Kakashi could fling the shuriken back at her. She found a tree to hide in just in time to watch Naruto go flying through the air and into the river after receiving a foot to his chest.

Good grief.

And shouldn't that be against the rules? A genin was never going to have the strength of a jōnin!

Kakashi was reading his book again, and Sakura stared at him, watching for anything useful that she could use. The baggy standard jōnin uniform didn't make it any easier to read his minute movements. She could barely even see his chest rise and fall with his breaths. How was she supposed to read him like this? Not to mention that stupid mask covering half his face, and his hitai-ate covering another quarter of it.

_He obviously has something to hide–something that he can't control–so he has to cover it up._ Inner was practically salivating at the discovery.

Sakura smirked triumphantly, though she had no idea what that 'something' was or how to find out.

"What are you doing now?" Kakashi sounded exasperated. "You look kinda wobbly for someone who's going to surpass the Hokage."

"I haven't eaten for hours! How can I fight when I'm starving to death?!" Naruto complained as he pulled himself out of the river.

Sakura's stomach growled and to her right, so did Sasuke's. She snapped her head around to find him near the trunk of the tree and a few branches below her, blushing slightly. Sakura almost giggled, but she didn't want to give away their position if their grumbling stomachs hadn't already.

"Hours, hm? You didn't heed my advice about skipping breakfast, then?"

"No, yeah, we did! But then you were two hours late and Sakura gave us breakfast sausage so we wouldn't pass out!"

"She did, did she?"

Oh, how Sakura's stomach sank at her sensei's tone, the dark, sinking feeling from this morning returning to her chest.

"So, you caught me off-guard! That's all it was, believe it! I'm gonna pass this test, and I'm _not_ going back to the Academy!"

Six Naruto-clones sprang from the river, flying straight for Kakashi.

"No way." Sakura whispered. "_Seven_ Naruto?!"

"I _will_ become a ninja!" Naruto joined his clones.

They weren't images, either; they were freakin' real!

Pride welled up in Sakura as she remembered how difficult making a clone had been for him. Naruto may have been a troublemaker, and not the sharpest shuriken in the pouch, but no one could ever accuse him of wasting his potential.

"Great technique, but I don't think you can hold out for very long. You talk like you're the best, Naruto, but you're still the worst student." Kakashi ridiculed. "You can't beat me with this jutsu."

He could say whatever he wanted, but he had put down that stupid book.

Sakura watched Kakashi carefully–his book may have been put away, but nothing else had changed. Same terrible posture, same impossible-to-read stance. She wished she weren't on his blind side so that she could see his eye. No matter how much training someone went through, it was impossible to completely prevent your eyes from giving you away. Sakura had no doubt that Kakashi's eye gave very little away, but she could work with 'a little.'

The bells on Kakashi's hip rang out as Naruto latched onto him from behind.

_Eight Naruto! Amazing!_

"Didn't you say not to let your enemy get behind you? Good advice, Sensei."

Sakura didn't see it happen this time, either. One moment, Kakashi was being held by seven Naruto while the eighth flew at him with his fist extended–and the next, there were nine Naruto. Sakura didn't know if Kakashi had done a simple transformation jutsu and was still being held by all those Naruto, or if he had done a replacement jutsu, as well, and was now one of the seven doing the holding.

And Sakura wasn't the only one having trouble figuring out which Naruto was the imposter, either.

The ensuing chaotic melee between all the Naruto was entertaining but embarrassing. A few hours ago, Sakura would have taken this is a sign that she could not, in good conscience, choose to help Naruto get that second bell since he wasn't even savvy enough to disperse his clones to smoke out Kakashi. Now, though, she couldn't help but feel responsible to teach him some strategy once this was over, whether or not he remained on Team 7.

Sakura kept as close an eye on all of the Naruto as she could, and it only took her a few moments to find Kakashi, his slouch as pronounced as ever, on the outside of the fray of clones.

Sakura threw eight shuriken, crossing her fingers that the original Naruto would either catch or avoid the weapon, and then dropped down to Sasuke's branch, ignoring the surprised, irritated look he gave her. To Sakura's relief, all eight of the real Naruto caught the shuriken aimed at them, and to her even greater relief, it only took them a second to realize that one of them had been left out.

"That one's Kakashi-sensei," she whispered to Sasuke, keeping her eyes on him below. "If we can just–"

There was a loud _POOF!_ and then all the Naruto were gone except one, and he was turning black and blue from the fight.

"Dammit." Sakura hissed. "He disappeared."

"Aha!" Naruto lunged toward a tree and the fallen bells amongst its roots.

"Oh, no." Sakura covered her eyes in embarrassment.

"Idiot."

"HEY!" Naruto shouted, now hanging upside down, the bell just out of reach. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?!"

"A ninja must see through deception." Kakashi ambled out from behind the tree, nose in his book. "If something looks too good to be true, it probably is."

In the blink of an eye, several shuriken cut through Kakashi.

"SASUKE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

Sakura didn't have time to look at her comrade before Kakashi turned into a log.

[Sharks and Minnows]

Bruised and bleeding from a botched attempt to help Sasuke, Sakura wandered alone through the forest of the training ground, trying to plot her next move. She could both hear and feel Naruto raging from his spot in Kakashi's trap, his chakra making itself known even this far away. Helping him was probably the best course of action, as at least even a failed attempt would be appreciated, unlike with Sasuke.

Yeah, she deserved some frost for forgetting to account for his weight when she channeled chakra to her feet and leapt out of the tree with him. In her defense, she was just trying to get them out of there as fast as possible before Kakashi could follow the trajectory of Sasuke's shuriken back to them. And she deserved his irritation for freezing up and making him come up with a solution to save them both from crashing into the ground and breaking several bones.

But she did not deserve to be called foolish and have him disappear on her, leaving her alone and exposed in an open area to catch the breath that had been knocked out of her. After all, he was the one who fell into the same trap as Naruto by falling for something too good to be true.

_Are you finally ready to admit that I'm right about him? _Inner asked.

_Give him a break! It's not like he's had someone to teach him manners!_

_More someones than Naruto._

"Stupid Inner," Sakura mumbled to herself and went off in search of Sasuke just to spite her other half.

Sakura figured that if she could feel Naruto's chakra, she should probably be able to feel Sasuke's. While Sasuke might not be in a rage, he also probably didn't know how to hide or even minimize his chakra, so she was pretty sure she could get a bead on him.

After a couple of minutes of failing to get even a hint of him, she sat down to try meditating again. She shut her eyes, took a couple of slow, deep breaths, then imagined her chakra reaching out. She immediately felt Naruto even stronger, and he was obviously still upset because even though she was sure that she could feel Sasuke's, and another signature that she assumed was Kakashi-sensei, they were overpowered by him. She imagined 'muting' him and focused on the other two signatures, both of which were fairly close to her.

She picked out Sasuke's immediately and tried to hone in on a more specific location. He was definitely east of Sakura's location, and a little south. She focused harder to get a distance for him but she had never extended her chakra this far before. It wasn't even twenty yards out, though, and Sasuke wasn't that close. She could sense him and Kakashi-sensei, but they were all very vague and fuzzy to her–nothing like her experience with Naruto and Sasuke this morning.

She sighed, thinking she really needed more practice with this. She was about to open her eyes and make her way toward Sasuke when Kakashi's signature disappeared.

_Shoot!_

Sakura's chakra snapped back to her like a rubber band, knocking her to the ground with a gasp of pain. She pressed her hands to her head in a weak attempt to mitigate her headache while tears ran down her cheeks and she struggled for breath, nauseated and disoriented. She flexed her toes and grabbed fistfuls of grass to ground herself back in her own body as she breathed into the Microcosmic Orbit again.

She wasn't sure how long she reeled before she sensed a disturbance near her. She forced herself to open her eyes, blocking them with her hand against the painful sunlight, and cautiously got to her feet. She looked around nervously, a very unsettling feeling that had nothing to do with the chakra snapback, enveloping her.

"Sak-sakura." Sasuke's voice whispered behind her.

"Sasuke!" Sakura turned as quickly as she dared, grateful just to have someone familiar near when she felt so sick. Her heart sank when she saw him barely propping himself up on a tree, covered in blood and riddled with kunai.

She ran to Sasuke, trying to remember the first-aid she had been taught in the Academy. Even as a student, she had wondered why they didn't spend more time on the subject, and now she knew for sure that the time they had spent on it was woefully inadequate. Still, it was something, and combined with her own research...would definitely not be enough.

_Holy shit, Sasuke is going to die!_

_You can't let him!_ Inner shouted. _Itachi would be devastated!_

Sakura didn't have the time or energy to spare on chastising her sub-conscious, instead pressing her palms to a particularly bloody wound in his chest.

"Sasuke! Sasuke, can you hear me?"

"Please. Please, help me." Sasuke groaned.

Huh.

Sakura leaned a little closer to Sasuke and took a whiff of his breath: wintergreen. Why the heck did his breath smell like wintergreen? She hadn't smelled it on him while they were in the tree earlier, or during their uncomfortably-close proximity when she almost turned them into pancakes. And wasn't he allergic to wintergreen?

"Kai!" Sakura shouted.

A moment later, she breathed a sigh of relief: Sasuke was gone and so was that unsettling feeling. She was going to have to buy Inoichi-san a bouquet of his own flowers after this.

The unsettled feeling returned when she began to ask herself questions: Where were her teammates? How long had she actually been in the genjutsu? Had she failed? Had Sasuke?

Was her sensei a sadistic psychopath?

_Eh, I'm gonna give him this one._ inner said. _Better to practice battle conditions before being in battle so that you can train your reactions._

Sakura harrumphed at that and made her way quickly, but quietly, back toward the open training field, hoping she could find out more there. Based on the sun, she was pretty sure she hadn't been in the genjutsu very long. She could hopefully regroup with Sasuke or Narauto and work with one of them to get the bells.

"Sakura."

Sakura stopped mid-stride and looked to her left. Sasuke was staring back at her as though it were normal for heads to sprout from the ground.

"Uck, _another_ one?!" Sakura shook her fists at the sky. "Kai!"

"What the hell are you doing?!" Sasuke snapped.

_What. The. HELL?! _Inner screeched.

"Holy Hashirama! How did you end up in the ground?!"

"Just get me out!"

The graceless dropp to her knees made Sakura dizzy, but she ignored it and began digging at the dirt around Sasuke's neck.

"I'm not totally foolish, you know," she couldn't stop herself from pouting. "I just forgot to adjust for your weight. I'm actually really good at chakra-jumping."

"I don't care."

"No?" She pinched his cheek a little too rough to just be teasing. "Then you wouldn't care if I kissed you right now?" She faked a blush and a girlish giggle.

"Don't even think about it." Sasuke threatened.

Sakura adjusted her position and said, "Fear not, Saint Sasuke, I shall not defile you. Although," she snickered a little meanly, "it's not like I'd be stealing your first one, is it?"

"Hnnnn." He practically snarled.

"How'd you get buried up to your neck?"

"Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke spat the name as he freed one of his arms and began helping Sakura push away the dirt. "He called it a head-hunter jutsu. The coward used it after I touched one of the bells."

_He what?! _

_He could get one of those bells and move on without Naruto _or_ us!_ Inner panicked.

"I have to get one before noon." Sasuke freed his other arm and pulled himself out of the ground.

"Or we could always give up and try again next year." Sakura shrugged.

"I am an avenger!" He rounded on her with a sneer, grabbing her by the collar. "I must be stronger than my prey! I need this training and there is no time for setbacks!"

The hair on the back of Sakura's neck prickled and she had to fight the lurch in her stomach threatening to bring up bile. Something had flashed in Sasuke's eyes that Sakura had never seen before and for the first time, she wondered if she really knew the boy in front of her.

"Gee-geez," she laughed nervously, "it was a joke. Of course I don't want to wait until next year!"

Sasuke's gaze wavered when he saw her fear and something resembling contrition passed across his features.

"Sasuke, we should help each–."

_Briiiing! Brrrriiiing!_

"Dammit!" He released her gently, "that's the timer!"

By the time they followed the sound of the timer to its location, Naruto was tied to a post with two bento boxes at his feet. He looked miserable but Sakura noticed right away that the welts and bruises that he'd had from his round with the shadow clones had healed. How was that possible?

Before she could try to hypothesize, Kakashi spoke.

"I've decided that I won't send any of you back to the Academy."

"What?" Sakura asked dumbly, breathing heavily through her nose as she fought off an upheaval of stomach contents.

"That means–!" Naruto began enthusiastically.

"That's right: you're all being dropped from the program. Permanently."

"WHA–?!" Sakura and Naruto shouted.

Sasuke clearly looked at Kakashi like he was going to be practice for taking down his 'certain someone.'

"You said we'd be sent back to the Academy! You can't just change your mind and stop us from being ninja at all! Why would you do that?" Naruto demanded.

"Because you don't think like ninja." Kakashi said haughtily. "You think like little kids. Like _brats_."

Sasuke ran at Kakashi head-on and Sakura swore she saw red flash in his eyes. She had never seen him lose his temper like this before. Sure, he was mean and surly, but to just rush a jōnin without a plan? That wasn't like him at all.

As Kakashi sat on Sasuke and twisted his arm precariously behind his back, Sakura had a couple of options: keep her mouth shut or stick up for Sasuke. It wasn't much of a contest, even for Inner, but they both wished she hadn't been so screechy about it.

"You can't just squash Sasuke like a bug!"

"You think it's all about you." Kakashi-said to all three of them. "You don't know what it means to be a ninja. You think it's a game," he snarled. "Why do you think we put you on squads, huh? Did you ever consider that?"

Sakura hadn't ever considered that, and she couldn't now as her head began to swim again and she broke into a cold sweat.

"None of you figured out what this exercise really is, not even close. _That's_ what determines if you pass or fail."

"How are we supposed to know why you put us on squads? We don't make the rules!" Naruto wriggled in his constraints.

"It's so basic," Kakashi said with disgust. "Teamwork."

Sakura leaned against one of the pillars next to Naruto as spots began to dance across her vision.

"Just working together?" Naruto asked. "Is that what you mean?"

"Yes, that's what I mean. It's too late now, but if you three had acted as a group, you might have been able to take the bells."

"You pitted us against each other." Sakura said weakly. "And we fell for it."

"Exactly. A genin should have a natural feel for teamwork, even when it doesn't benefit him, but it never even crossed your minds. Naruto, you did everything on your own and didn't even think of consulting the others; Sasuke, you _refused_ to consult the others because you thought they were so far beneath you; and Sakura, you were too busy looking for Sasuke to help Naruto, or even yourself."

His assessment rankled Sakura bad: she _had_ helped Naruto. And what did Kakashi-sensei expect her to do, try and take him head-on when he had so thoroughly criticized Naruto for coming at him that way? And she sure as hell couldn't go it alone, so sticking with Sasuke had been her only option!

_You could have listened to _me_ and helped Naruto down from that trap_.

_Shut up, Inner!_

"I didn't need her help!" Sasuke sneered.

_How easily he forgets who dug him out of his death trap._ Inner tapped her toes.

Sasuke had the decency to look barely guilty as Sakura glared at him.

"Arrogance! Individual skills are required, but ninja missions are carried out in squads. Teamwork is essential; every shinobi knows this. When an individual puts himself above the squad, it leads to mission-failure, and even death. For example," he put a kunai to Sasuke's throat, "Sakura: kill Naruto now, or Sasuke dies."

"WHA–?!" Naruto's eyes bugged out.

The extra surge of fear produced just enough bile to trip Sakura's delicate truce with her stomach and she began to retch.

"Sakura!" Naruto shouted in alarm.

"Get off me!" Sasuke struggled against Kakashi. "What's wrong with you, Sakura?"

"Don't get mad at her, bastard! She can't help it!"

"I'm not mad at her!"

"You sound mad!"

"Because _you're_ annoying!"

"She'll be fine." Kakashi cut in sharply before Naruto could retort.

Sakura spat out the last of the bitter bile, then wiped the back of her hand across her mouth with a small groan.

"That's what happens on a mission." Kakashi continued as if there had been no interruption, putting away the kunai. "The enemy takes a hostage and you're forced to make an impossible choice. On every mission, your life is on the line." He stood and walked over to a large stone with writing on it. "Have you looked at this? The names engraved on it? They are all ninja who are honored as heroes in our village."

"That's it!" Naruto shouted. "I'm gonna get my name on that stone! Everyone's gonna see me as a hero! I'm gonna–"

"Naruto." Sakura said sadly, immediately getting his attention. "They're all dead."

Sakura's familiarity with the Memorial Stone was due to an ANBU operative in a leopard mask. Leopard-san had saved Sakura from the blond in that alley and his green-haired friend. And even though her violent actions were also the subjects of Sakura's nightmares, Sakura loved her. Leopard-san was the reason Sakura never let her parents talk her out of becoming a ninja.

Even though Leopard-san had promised to keep in touch after she handed Sakura over to her parents a week after the attack, Sakura hadn't seen her since. She didn't know Leopard-san's name, but that didn't stop her from wondering if each new name on the stone belonged to her. On bad days, Sakura told herself that Leopard-san wasn't dead, she just didn't want to see her. But, Sakura knew that Leopard-san wasn't a liar–if she wasn't keeping in touch, it was because she couldn't.

"Ohhh." Naruto breathed, embarrassed and sad.

"That's right. The names of my closest friends are engraved on this memorial stone."

Sakura was still on Kakashi's blindside, but she didn't need to see his eye to know that his melancholy was genuine. His voice was sadder, his slouch was slouchier, his head bowed farther, his hands deeper in his pockets. She got the feeling that he was being his real self, unguarded and vulnerable, for just that moment.

And that's when she realized why she had described him as "theatrical" to her father: the man before her was just putting on a show for everyone while the real Kakashi-sensei hid himself away. Sakura could relate to that. She could relate to that a lot.

"I'm going to give you another chance. You have one hour to get the bells. Eat up now for strength, but Naruto gets nothing. Consider it your punishment for trying to eat without your teammates. If either of you," he looked at Sakura and Sasuke, "give him food, everyone fails. I make the rules, you follow them. Got it?"

And then he was gone.

_Pfft! Obvious! _Inner rolled her eyes.

Sakura almost started laughing but then she noticed Sasuke eating while Naruto stared longingly at the bento and drooled. So much for ninja being able to see through deception.

She sighed and wondered if maybe Kakashi-sensei wasn't so dumb after all. Hoping to move this along, and get her teammates to understand the meaning of the word, Sakura spoke up.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"Huh? What for, Sakura?"

"Kakashi-sensei's right: I wasn't a team player, and I'm so used to competing against everyone, I guess I don't really know how to be. But I'm willing to try." She smiled softly at both of them, hoping she wouldn't have to say more.

"What are you talking about, Sakura? You threw those shuriken at Sensei and saved my butt."

Somewhere in the distance, Kakashi snorted.

"And then again when you threw even more shuriken to help me figure out which one of me was actually Kakashi-sensei! _Teme_ wouldn't have done that."

"Hn." Sasuke crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry, too, Sakura. I didn't even think about you or Sasuke. I just wanted those bells so bad!"

"We all did." She squeezed his shoulder and he grinned at her. As she grinned back, she wondered how she could have ever thought his smile was creepy. She looked at Sasuke then asked, "Are you gonna get in on this or should we move on?"

"Hnm." He grunted again, but looked at them out of the corner of his eye. "Sorry."

"Well, now that we're all on the same page." Sakura took out a kunai and cut the ropes holding Naruto. "Let's eat."

"Huh?" They both looked at her.

"I need more protein than carbs right now," she said, ignoring their confusion as she took some meat from the blue bento and added it to the red one, while moving all but one rice ball from the red and adding it to the blue. "So you two can split the blue bento while we come up with a plan of attack."

"Why do you get more meat?" Sasuke pouted.

"Because spiking my blood-sugar with rice will only make me sick again."

"Makes sense to me." Naruto nodded, mouth full of rice and vegetables.

"Shut up, idiot, if _I_ don't know what blood-sugar is, then you sure as hell don't. And don't eat the whole thing!" Sasuke smacked Naruto upside the head, making him spit rice everywhere.

"Watch it!" Sakura shouted.

* * *

Kakashi watched the genin from a nearby tree, unsure of what he was experiencing. He definitely recognized the sick feeling in his gut that told him he didn't want this, but there was also some sort of...pleasant feeling in his chest. Not happiness or contentment...pride, maybe? And then, of course, there was his brain telling him that they had passed and now he was a sensei.

That sick feeling in his gut grew and he knew he had to find a way out of this.

Kakashi transported himself in front of the genin in a cloud of smoke and wind, sneering internally when the force of the wind made Sakura lose her footing. How the fuck did she even make it out of the Academy?!

To Kakashi's chagrin, Naruto and Sasuke both wrapped their arms around her to keep her from falling, and even remained to support her.

"YOU!" Kakashi bellowed, hoping to scare them into pointing fingers at each other. "You broke the rules! Any last words?"

"We're a team!" Naruto shouted.

That was okay–Kakashi expected that one.

"All three of us." Sasuke said reluctantly.

And there went all of Kakashi's hopes for never being a sensei. Sasuke was the most selfish and focused of the three, which made him the most likely to break if he thought that standing firm would set his vengeance back a year or more. But, he hadn't broken.

"Three as one." Sakura nodded, giving each of her teammates a squeeze on their shoulders. Naruto grinned at Sakura and Sasuke didn't shrug her off, which made her blush happily and made Kakashi stifle a groan.

"Three as one? That's your excuse?" Kakashi demanded, unwilling to give in just yet.

"It's not an excuse!" Naruto roared, making his teammates wince. "It's who we are!"

The other two nodded in agreement.

"Hmm." Kakashi hummed to buy himself some time to collect himself. He couldn't think of anything else to try and wedge them apart. He was fucked. He sneered behind his mask, knowing his eye-crinkle would fool them into thinking he was smiling. "You pass."

"What?!"

"You. Pass." His voice shook a little as he tried to control the rage, the pain, and the shock coursing through him.

Sasuke looked murderous and Kakashi took note to keep an eye on the kid; just because he was nothing compared to Itachi didn't mean he wasn't dangerous.

"You're the first squad to do so," Kakashi told them, shoving his negative reactions behind the walls he had built for containing such things so that he didn't have to deal with them, and resigning himself to the fact that these brats were now a permanent part of his life. "All the others did exactly as I said, no brains of their own." Kakashi almost sighed reminiscently, but decided it was better to just follow the script, no matter how it made him cringe. "In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. That's true. But, those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."

In an unconscious attempt to get back at Sakura for uniting her teammates, and destroying his life, Kakashi ruffled her hair–which made her blush at the attention–and asked, "How's your gut, Sakura?"

Kakashi was both disappointed and pleasantly surprised that she showed no signs of the outrage usually apparent when someone referred to a woman's stomach with such a loaded word.

Sakura smiled placatingly and replied, "Like you said, Sensei: I'm fine."

"Glad to hear it."

"Hey, um," Sakura said, looking between the three boys. "My dad and I would like you all to come to dinner tonight. We're having fresh fish and some vegetables from our garden."

"All right!" Naruto shouted. "Thanks, Sakura!"

"You're welcome. Sasuke? Kakashi-sensei?"

"Hm." Sasuke nodded his head once.

"Sorry, Sakura, I already have plans tonight." Kakashi lied. "Maybe next time."

"I understand, Sensei." She nodded, then turned to her teammates. "Six o'clock."

Sasuke and Kakashi took off quickly after that, but Naruto remained behind with Sakura.

"Don't hit me, Sakura, but you don't look so good."

"Who asked you?" She said defensively. "Not all of us can spend hours training and look as fresh as when we started!"

"I just meant that you're extra pale and sweaty!"

"Of course, I am, fool! I haven't–Woah." She wobbled and reached out to steady herself on Naruto's shoulder. "I don't feel so good."

Sakura made a mental note to ask Ino about the side-effects of chakra snapback and how to prevent them.

"Here," Naruto stood in front of her and turned his back to her, "hop on. I'll carry you home."

Unlike his offer yesterday, this time there was no salaciousness in his tone. Sakura thought of declining but decided that she really _would_ rather get a piggyback ride from Naruto than walk home. She hopped on, draping her arms around his neck and leaning her cheek against his shoulder.

"Thanks, Naruto."

"Any time, Sakura."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you just now." She hugged him tighter.

"It's okay." He patted her hands.

"No, it isn't. Please, forgive me?"

"Yeah, of course, I forgive you!" He laughed and leaned his head against hers for a moment. "Believe it!"

"Thanks." She yawned, feeling strangely comfortable for such an awkward position.

"Don't fall asleep, Sakura; I don't know where you live."

"I don't know where you live, either." She realized.

"Just those apartments across from the Academy."

"Who do you live with?"

"Huh? No one; I live on my own."

Just like Sasuke.

Thinking of the pledge she had taken with her teammates–three as one–Sakura said, "You can come over to my house any time, Naruto."

"Yeah?" He asked excitedly but couldn't hide the wariness that she might be pranking him.

"Yeah."

"Thanks, Sakura." He said almost reverently.

She squeezed him a little tighter, then said, "Turn left here."

* * *

_So, just like I've made Sakura (and those of the Rookie 9 with parents and/or older siiblings to tutor them, although you haven't really seen that yet) more knowledgeable to start out with, I've also made Kakashi...not as infallible as he is in canon. I find his–and Sasuke's–seemingly hardwired perfection and the utter lack of criticism of either of them not only boring, but lazy. Honestly, I have very strong opinions about Kakashi's and Sasuke's wasted potential in canon, not just in terms of how they would have affected the story, but in relation to their own progress as characters. Anyway, I'm ranting, and Kishimoto is published and I'm not, so who am I to criticize?_

_I'm sorry if the perspectives are a little confusing. I'm still trying to choose how I want to switch between perspectives with these four. That's most obvious with with Naruto and Sasuke since I originally was going to just switch between Sakura's and Kakashi's perspectives but have since changed my mind. _

_This is un-beta'd, so it's going to take me a while to get into a groove, y'all. Thanks for reading anyway!_


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